By the editorial staff
Published 1 hour ago, Updated now
The Olympic torch for the Paris 2024 Games. AFP
The last survivor of the torchbearers of the 1948 Games, Daniel Rebiffé was invited by Tony Estanguet to be one of the torchbearers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
He dreamed of it. Daniel Rebiffé, 99 years old, born in Étampes wanted to take part in the party. Carry the flame once again. As in 1948 during the London Olympics. That year, he took part in the relay from Geneva to Luxembourg: “Every 3, 4 km, we took turns carrying this torch. We crossed a whole bunch of regions where we were magnificently received. When we arrived in a town, it was generally the local athletes who carried the flame along the route and we collected the torch as we left the towns. For 3 days and 3 nights, each of us ran between 50 and 60 km, in very difficult conditions since, the Federation not having enough money, we had not received any equipment. Then, when we handed over the flame to the Luxembourgers, we each left with one of the torches offered by the English committee”he told the website of the town of Étampes.
Because when he learned that the flame would pass through Etampes on July 22, Daniel Rebiffé wanted to make the connection: “When I saw that, I said to myself: am I going to have the chance to live until then? And I also thought what joy it would be to be able to bring together, even for a few moments, the flame of 2024 and that of 1948.”
He spoke about his project, helped by his son Sylvain. “Dad is starting to run a little again every morning. So, he does his little kilometer, he jogs and he is very good. As he says, ‘I don’t drool and I don’t have a walker.’ When I saw him at Christmas, to say that he was in great shape, he received me in a strange way. He had put on a tracksuit top from a well-known sports brand and had put on a beanie. He still has the Olympic torch from the ’48 Games, he has it in his possession. He took it and, with his thumbs up, he said: ‘I’m ready, I have to carry the torch’.”his son had told Europe 1. They waited before learning the good news in a letter signed by Tony Estanguet, the president of Paris 2024. “It was a very moving thing. I had a tear in my eye”confided, delighted, Daniel Rebiffe to RTL.
«This is a unique opportunity to talk about this trip again, we had only been warned three weeks before. We stayed with these Berlin Games, which had left a bitter taste, these were the beginnings of a war. We suffered. I want to convey, so that young people know what happened, the immense joy we had at finding the Olympic Games in a peaceful Europe… and this word… Freedom! I couldn’t leave without talking about all this… I have to be careful not to fall !”, he said on France Blue.
A moving Olympic story, like that of Charles Coste (Olympic team pursuit champion at the 1948 Olympic Games), the oldest living Olympic champion who has just celebrated his 100th birthday and will also be one of the torch bearers for the Paris 2024 Games.
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